In the past several decades, there has been an unprecedented and ever-accelerating growth in availability and sheer quantity and variety of increasingly complex and popular technological items, especially with respect to electronic products and other products ranging from mobile telephones, to media storage and playback products, to personal digital assistants (PDAs), to portable and other types of computers, and so on. However, this course of events has brought about a number of significant and escalating challenges across a wide spectrum of circumstances.
Because of the rapid advances in technological developments, many electronic products are constantly replaced with newer models in relatively short product cycles (some measured in months), which, coupled with the desire of the some consumers to have the “latest and greatest” and the goals of other consumers to find “bargains”, lead to a proliferation of a number of secondary markets for pre-owned products.
These markets are quite enormous in scope, and are bolstered by the access to a vast worldwide customer base through popular online auction sites and ready availability of easy to use and inexpensive person-to-person sales facilitators (such as local buy-sell online listings). However, in all types of aftermarket sales, there is an enormous problem with fraud (such as an online auction seller misrepresenting that they actually have the offered electronic product in hand, or that they are in fact the legitimate owner of the product), counterfeiting of expensive products, misrepresentations about item repair histories, ownership records, warranties, age, and so on.
It should also be noted that because many electronic products are in consistent demand, and with quite a few types of these products being expensive, they are often targets for theft or other misappropriation, or otherwise figure in various other types of illegal activities as was noted above (such as fraud, counterfeiting, etc.). In many cases, even if stolen or otherwise misplaced items are recovered by law enforcement, it is very difficult, if not impossible to determine and/or verify ownership.
In addition, product manufacturers rely on establishing, developing and growing a loyal customer base and are always interested in gathering information from purchasers/owners of their products. Most often, this information is gathered though voluntary registration of the products with the manufacturer by their users/owners, for which incentives are often offered (or penalties established for failure to register—such as loss of warranty). Because many users never bother to register their products/products, manufacturers are always looking for incentives to encourage registrations.
Moreover, many product purchasers/users often alter or otherwise misrepresent product purchase information by registering it long after the original purchase date in an effort to extend the effective coverage period of product warranty. Paper receipts issued by most product vendors may be easily forged or otherwise altered. This results in significant losses to manufacturers.
There are a number of reasons why the above challenges have remained largely unmet—these reasons include, but are not limited to, at least one of the following:                (1) the difficulty in obtaining certain specific information about each particular unique electronic product (authenticity, legal status (whether the product is stolen, etc.), purchase records, ownership records and history, warranty/repair history, etc.)—hereinafter the “PRODUCT RECORD”,        (2) the difficulty in linking the PRODUCT RECORD to its corresponding electronic product and in maintaining the link over time; and        (3) the difficulty in obtaining, verifying, tracking, and otherwise managing PRODUCT RECORDs.        
The above-noted difficulties are not surprising, due to the fact that for decades, the only manner in which each particular electronic product was through its serial number assigned by the product manufacturer. A product serial number is typically printed on, engraved on, or most often otherwise attached to an outer surface of the product (such as printed on a sticker or metal or plastic tape glued to the device). In some cases, serial numbers are provided on an inner surface of the device, such as inside its housing, under a removable battery, etc.). As a result, in the vast majority of cases, serial numbers are quite easy to remove, obscure, or alter. Moreover, because each product manufacturer provides its own serial numbers using its own numbering scheme, most often without regard for serial number nomenclature of other manufacturers, in certain cases, serial numbers for different products from different manufacturers may be identical or confusingly similar to one another. In view of the sheer and ever-growing quantity of available electronic products, this occurrence continues to become increasingly more frequent. Thus, currently, no serial number can ever really be assured of being “unique”.
In recent years certain electronic products have been introduced that store serial numbers in digital memory in addition to, or in lieu of, those numbers being physically provided on the device. In cases where serial numbers are only provided in electronic form, the numbers are not visibly displayed to product users for inspection, but are only capable of being retrieved through use of external electronic devices (such as computers) utilizing specially configured software (e.g., typically provided by the manufacturer to authorized personnel).
For the above reasons, product serial numbers were exclusively utilized by the respective product manufacturers, and/or by repair/service providers, for warranty activation and administration, product update and recall notifications, and in connection with the provision of product configuration maintenance/repair services. Primary and aftermarket consumers, law enforcement personnel, product users, and other inquiring parties were not able to use serial numbers to any significant extent, especially because certain potentially very useful information was simply not available in connection with the serial numbers.
In the above-mentioned cases, where serial numbers are digitally stored in certain electronic products, significant problems can arise in connection with unauthorized manipulation thereof. By way of example, each mobile telephone includes an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number stored in its memory, which can be viewed on the phone display screen in response to certain commands. However, on many mobile telephones, it is possible to alter the IMEI number utilizing a computer or equivalent device equipped with special software configured for that purpose, whether by the manufacturer or, more typically, by an unauthorized third party. Even a cursory Internet search, will readily reveal dozens of “hacking” solutions for modifying the IMEI number of most mobile telephones available on the market.
Because the IMEI number is used by the GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) network to identify valid mobile devices, it can therefore be used to stop a stolen phone from accessing the network, fraudulent alteration thereof may enable a perpetrator to use a stolen or otherwise unlawfully obtained mobile telephone with an altered IMEI number, to misappropriate communication and/or data services. It should also be noted that the IMEI number is most often only used to identify a specific mobile telephone, and is not in any way linked to, or associated with, a mobile service subscriber using the telephone.
Certain attempts to address the numerous challenges above have been made, but none have achieved any measurable commercial success, and none have gained any significant degree of widespread implementation. By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,259,367 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,222,791 have proposed utilizing bar code labels, RFID tags, and/or magnetic tags affixed to various products, in conjunction with appropriate compatible “reader devices” and other system component, for product identification, verification, and related product information management. However, these solutions still suffer from significant disadvantages of the previously known product information gathering and management approaches. For example, in each case, the data-containing, magnetic, and/or electronic labels and/or tags are easy to remove, alter, or erase by physical action. Furthermore, none of the suggested solutions address the challenge of ensuring the implementation and use of truly unique “serial numbers” or equivalents across different manufacturers and/or products.
Other solutions have been proposed that focus on tracking ownership, and verifying the authenticity, of certain products and valuable items (such as artwork). However, all of these solutions require modification of the system and method.
It would thus be desirable to provide an electronic product-related information registration, verification, and management system and method by providing electronic products with a unique ID (“UID”) assigned to each product and stored in an integrated or embedded product component in such a manner as to (1) make the UID readily available to an inquirer, and (2) make the UID virtually impossible to remove or change without destroying or seriously damaging its corresponding product, and to provide at least one registration center operable to store and enable conditional access to, at least one information record linked to each product through its UID, such that the at least one information record may be advantageously accessed and/or managed by at least one authorized inquirer through use of the UID.
It would also be desirable to provide a system and method for ensuring that the UIDs assigned to various electronic products are not duplicated, regardless of different product manufacturers. It would further be desirable to provide an embedded or integrated UID component for electronic products operable for at least one of: (1) selective activation in response to one or more predetermined criteria (e.g., an authorized inquirer request, etc.), (2) display of the UID to an inquirer, for example by use of a product's display component, (3) proximity-limited transmission of the UID from the component to a preconfigured UID receiver, (4) wireless transmission (preferably secure) of the UID from the component to a an authorized receiving system, (5) transmission (preferably secure) of the UID through a physical electronic connection to an authorized requesting component or system.
It would additionally be desirable to provide an electronic product-related information registration, verification, and management system and method for electronic products each having a UID assigned thereto and securely stored therein in an integrated and/or embedded component thereof, that comprises at least one UID registration center, each having a communication system operable to receive UID and other information, over at least one communication network, a control system, and a UID database system that comprises a plurality of data records each linked to a particular UID stored in a corresponding UID registration center database file, such that at least one authorized inquirer is able to utilize a particular UID (preferably in conjunction with provision of a verifier to verify authorization) to access, verify, edit, transfer, transmit, and otherwise manage at least one information item related to each registered product in its corresponding UID registration center database file.
It would also be desirable to provide a system and method for ensuring that the integrated/embedded UID components (and the corresponding UIDs) assigned to various electronic products, are configured for use in conjunction with various conventional and future shipping, storage, inventory, tracking, etc. systems.
It would moreover be desirable to provide a system and method for electronic product information registration, verification and management for use in conjunction with electronic products supplied with UIDs, in which at least one UID registration center database further comprises user accounts for parties including, but not limited to, at least one of the following: product manufacturers, product distributors, retail stores, e-commerce stores, consumers, etc., where each account is associated with one or more UIDs that each corresponds to its UID registration center database file (as described above).
It would furthermore be desirable to provide a system and method for UID-based electronic product information registration, verification and management in which, in conjunction with creation of a UID registration center file for a particular electronic product (i.e., during electronic product UID registration), the registrant is provided with at least one verifier, each operable to at least one of: (1) ensure that subsequently only an authorized party may access the file by supplying a provided verifier to the registration center control system, (2) ensure that prior to activation by an electronic product seller, cannot be used to access the UID registration center file to guard against theft, loss, or other misappropriation of the corresponding electronic product, during transit from the seller to a buyer, and (3) when provided for a product manufacturer, ensure that the verifier is associated with each particular product UID and stored in the corresponding UID registration center file linked to the manufacturer's user account, such that the verifier is provided to a purchaser of the particular electronic product to facilitate ready registration thereof with the UID registration center.
It would additionally be desirable to enable a product manufacturer with an account at the UID registration center to automatically transmit and enter, at least one product information item associated with each particular product's UID, into that product's corresponding UID registration center database file, with the at least one product information item including, but not being limited to at least one of the following: manufacturer name, contact information, product brand name, model name/number, production date, warranty information, technical support information, and so on.
It would likewise be additionally be desirable to enable an electronic product sales intermediary party having an account at the UID registration center (e.g., distributor, store, aftermarket seller, etc.), to add product historical information to a particular registered product's UID registration center database file, including, but not limited to, at least one of the following: name/contact information of distributor, name/contact information of store, purchase date, return date, and service/warranty claims, status (lost, stolen, returned to manufacturer, reconditioned, etc.), with each information item being optionally time-stamped. It would also be desirable, to selectively ensure that all, or a predetermined portion, of product historical information stored in the UID registration center database file, is prevented from being edited or deleted.
It would furthermore be additionally be desirable to enable a consumer (or another end-user party), a distributor, a store, an after-market seller, or another party having an account at the UID registration center, to add/update/edit certain product information to a particular registered product's UID registration center database file, including, but not limited to, at least one of the following: name/contact information of owner, name/contact information of store, purchase date, return date, service/warranty claims, status (lost, stolen, returned to store or manufacturer, reconditioned, etc.), with each information item being optionally time-stamped. It would also be desirable, to enable the consumer selling a particular electronic product to a buyer, to transfer the UID registration center database file corresponding to the UID of the product being sold, to the buyer, such that the buyer is able to access the UID registration center database file and link the file to their existing (or newly created) account.
It would moreover be desirable to provide an additional access platform to enable other inquiring parties to connect to at least one UID registration center, seeking to verify particular product information through the use of UIDs for various purposes (such as to enable law enforcement officers to determine the status (stolen, etc.) of a recovered electronic product, and to locate the owner of a recovered stolen product, or to enable a person who finds a lost product, to contact its owner and return it).